Breathe
by sharkinterviewee
Summary: Amy knew she couldn't panic just because she was trapped in an elevator for an indefinite amount of time, and luckily her partner is there to help her get through it (get together one shot). If there was a 3rd genre option allowed it would be humor, so this isn't too heavy.


By this far in her life, Amy was sure that elevators could smell fear. That was the only explanation for just how often they malfunctioned around her- they were sentient and had it out for her. There was no other possible reason for her luck involving the moving death boxes.

She had gotten better at dealing with the panic she felt whenever she entered one as she got older, but she really should have just sworn them off for the rest of her life. But this particular elevator was taking them up to the 14th floor, so it wasn't like she could just walk up all of those flights of stairs and still get to the presentation on time. And Jake would've made fun of her for sure.

Her partner teased her all of the time about anything, but she was glad she wasn't alone in the elevator at that moment.

Jake was a few feet away from her leaning against the opposite wall, not even phased by the sudden jolt that jittered to a complete and unnatural stop. Amy was hoping that the doors would open any second, but they ticked away one by one and stayed shut.

"You have the worst luck with elevators. You know, in all of my life, I'd never even been close to a broken elevator until I met you. This is the third time this has happened with you. You know how many times I've been trapped in an elevator? Three times. Seriously Santiago, you're cursed," Jake teased with his stereotypical smug grin that she was both angry and glad to see.

"Shut up. We are not _trapped_ ," she hissed as she tried to will the doors to finally open, but it was no avail.

He watched her carefully for several moments while she pretended not to notice until he moved over to the buttons to press the call option and waited for someone to pick up and come on over the microphone.

"Uh, we're kinda stopped up here," he informed the woman whose voice came through the speakers.

"Yes, we see that. There seems to be a problem with the power cords. I would like to assure you, you are in absolutely no danger. We've sent a technician to inspect the problem and we're working on fixing it as fast as possible. Is everyone alright in there?"

"Yeah, there's two of us. We're okay," he responded, though he sent a slightly worried glance at Amy that didn't make her feel any better.

"We may need to reboot the electrical power soon to fix the problem. If it comes to that the backup generator will kick on in a second or less, though you may feel a small drop. The lights will shut off but the other safety features will still work as will the ventilation, and we'll get the lights back on as soon as possible, okay? You're not in any danger."

"Yeah, we got it. We'll let you know if we have any more problems," Jake said as he released the call button.

Of course the woman saying how they weren't in any danger over and over had the opposite effect of comforting on Amy, and she was sure it was written all over her face if the look Jake gave her was any indicator. He developed a slight crease in his brow and his eyes look troubled until it all disappeared and was replaced with the regular lighthearted Jake Peralta bravado she was used to.

"Are you being haunted by an elevator? Like your great great grandfather dismantled one because it was slowing down, and even though it had two baby elevators to feed your pop pop just took it apart and threw it out like it was nothing, and now it's haunting you? That is it, isn't it? You need to get a priest and like apologize or some shit, cause this problem is not solving itself, sister." And he smiled and it made her smile too. He was of course trying to distract her with jokes because that's what he did best, and it was working pretty well. She let out a huff of a laugh and had half a mind to thank him before the lights suddenly went out.

Not a moment later the car suddenly dropped and Amy ended up on the floor despite her previous grip on the handrail. She tried to peer through the darkness to find any light source, but it was pitch black. She could feel her chest tightening with every breath and had to tell herself over and over again that no, she was not going to die.

"Jake?" She called out with a trembling voice as she started to shake.

"Yeah, I'm here," he said and she could hear him closing the distance between them. Somehow he had managed to not fall so she had to pull on the hem of his pants to let him know that she wasn't standing like he thought he was. He sat on the floor beside her and held her hand that had managed to stop shaking in his grip.

"Did you know, Amy, that elevators are actually pretty freaking safe? They are literally the safest form of transportation. Like obviously more than cars and planes, but even escalators don't beat out these suckers. This one is guaranteed to have at least six cables, and we're not having any problems with those, but if five of them were to break just one would be more than enough to support us. Because they really overdo it with the safety in these things," he informed her in his soothing voice. The voice he usually used when he was trying to calm down victims at the scene of a crime or during an interview when they were frantic or scared. And Amy was so glad to hear it at that moment. It was a low timbre that she was sure she would be able to feel in his chest if she curled up next to him, and while it wasn't as light as it was most of the time, it was still so familiar and so comforting. When he was tracing circles on the back of her hand with his thumb it was all she could do to not lean in closer to his warm honey words.

"And they have this thing on the outside that I can't remember the name of, but it's independent from the cables so even if somehow all of them failed this thing on the bottom would sense that the car's falling too fast and put a stop to it. And these things are built like panic rooms to boot, so they really aren't dangerous. It's all okay. You're okay."

"Are you making that up?" Amy asked too curious to be scared. His random facts had distracted her to the point where even though they were sitting in the pitch black, it just felt like any old time they talked. Though she had no idea how he knew that off of the top of his head because he still didn't even know his own phone number after five years- but it didn't seem to be fabricated (Jake style, at least). When ever he was lying he felt the need to add in the most random, unbelievable details and his fibs would unravel beneath him. This time it seemed like he was telling the truth, though she had no idea how it was possible. She wasn't sure if the elevator got cell phone service, but even if it had she would have seen the light if he had googled it. She would have loved to see his face, but they were in the darkness the whole time.

"Nah, I looked it up last time you freaked out. Good thing too, cause I didn't know about your cursed bloodline back then," she could hear the smile in his voice and she just wished she was looking at it instead of the blackness.

"That was almost a year ago. You can't even remember the police codes you use everyday. You can barely remember 911," she reminded him with a scoff.

"I can memorize stuff when I put my mind to it. Important stuff."

Amy could hear the shrug he made and when he shifted slightly she was sure he was about to let go of her hand but sighed with relief when he just held on tighter. She knew that her panic attacks weren't pretty, but she had no idea it affected him this much. She didn't know why it affected him this much. Enough to memorize some random information that he might never need to use again. She tried not to read too much into it, but it was hard to hold herself back.

It wasn't until the car started shaking a bit that she remembered that she was in a situation that normally scared her half to death. Amy started breathing faster and she could hear her partners voice droning on in the background but she couldn't concentrate on it.

When the elevator dropped another few feet, she was in the middle of a full blown panic attack. Sucking in air like nobody's business, and she tried to remember all of her coping skills she learned over the years but her thoughts was so jumbled that she might as well have been thinking of absolutely nothing. In the back of her mind she knew she was hyperventilating and that she had to do something about her breathing, but that was overrun by her lungs growing more and more tired and she was sure she wasn't getting enough oxygen. She _knew_ she was running out of air.

She was going to die.

Alone.

She had all but forgotten that Jake was there until her back was pressed to his chest and his arms were wrapped around her.

"Again," he ordered, and Amy was vaguely aware that he had been saying stuff the whole time, though she had no idea what it was.

"What?" She choked out. "I- I can't hear you."

Jake pressed his lips to her ear sending shivers down her spine and told her in a low voice "Breathe with me. I'm here, and you can feel me breathing, so just concentrate on that and do it with me. Alright?"

At her weak nod he took an exaggerated inhale and held it for a few seconds before exhaling while Amy tried her best to follow suit. She focused on feeling him around her, feeling his chest expand and contract, and she tried her best to keep in rhythm with the pace his lungs were setting- even though it felt like hers were burning in the process. It took a good 8 or 9 cycles for it to do any good, but eventually her breathing rate started edging closer and closer to normal.

After her body finally accepted that she maybe wasn't going to die of oxygen deprivation, his warmness and closeness and the puffs of hot breath on her ear were making her lightheaded for an altogether different reason.

Before she knew it she was actually feeling alright. She didn't have to concentrate on breathing in time with her partner because it felt like the most natural thing in the world. She grabbed one of his hands wrapped around her waist and gave it a squeeze.

"See, I told you you were okay."

Maybe it was the from her lack of sight due to the lights and her other senses compensating, but all she could concentrate on was him. That instantly recognizable Jake scent that she was always surrounded by if she borrowed his NYPD hoodie without asking, one that was always present when she was close to him, though she had never been this close. Somehow he was always warm. He could probably wear shorts in a snowstorm if he wanted too, but at that moment his touch was almost burning. Her skin tingled everywhere they were connected through how ever many layers they were both wearing, and Amy had the undeniable urge to discover how it would feel if nothing as stupid as clothes separated them.

She supposed the darkness may have gave her courage, but she wasn't sure that even if there were spotlights trained on both of them that she would have been able to resist turning to him as she did in that moment.

She swiveled until she was on her knees between his legs and rested her hands on his shoulders. When she trailed her fingers down his chest he sucked in a breath and tried to pull away, but just by leaning back his head hit one of the walls.

"Amy, what are you-?" He didn't even finish the question, like he ran out of words to even say it.

"Just stay still for a second," Amy told him, and he froze still as a statue.

She ran her hands up his arms feeling the curves of his biceps, up to the angles of his shoulders to trace the outline of his collarbone through his T shirt and noted with a smirk that it seemed he was the one having trouble breathing now.

Her hands lifted to his face to feel the stubble on his jaw and she traced all of his best features, ghosting over his fluttering eyelids. Finally her fingertips found his parted lips but they were only there a moment before she leaned forward and kissed him.

He responded for a fraction of a second before pulling back, his head making a soft thump against the wall. "Amy," he warned. His voice was low again, but instead of calming it sounded on the edge of dangerous and made her heart flutter.

When she tried to go in for a second time he caught her hands and held her at bay much to her frustration.

"You're not feeling well. Don't do something you'll regret," Jake said in a completely misguided attempt to watch out for her.

"I won't," she reassured him and once again tried to kiss him, and once again he held her back while she let out a whine.

"Look, you're all shaken up and you've got adrenaline and junk, and once we get out of here you're going to really wish you hadn't done that."

She leaned back at that, but he still kept his hands encircling her wrists. "If this were any other time would you do it?"

"Do what?"

"If we were anywhere else but this stupid elevator and I kissed you, would you kiss back?" She knew what his answer would be, but as usual Peralta had to go and made everything 10 times harder than it had to be. "Honestly," she amended after giving him a moment to respond. He dropped her hands to rake one of his own through his hair.

"I don't know. Probably. Yeah. I would."

Amy smiled in response. "And if I told you that kissing is a fantastic way to make sure I don't hyperventilate, what would you do?"

"Blackmail," Jake hissed and she couldn't resist chuckling before she lifted her hands to cup his face.

"You are so stupid if you think I'm going to regret this. After all of this time I only regret not kissing you sooner. I kept waiting for a good time but it just never came, and I've been dying to kiss you forever," She confessed and hoped for some response, but he seemed to be shocked speechless in what she hoped was a good way. "Nod if you understand," she said hoping that even if he couldn't talk he could at least move out of his frozen state.

Instead he just crashed his lips to hers.

God it felt good for him to kiss her back. His lips parted and she finally got to taste him as their tongues joined. She was sure at that moment that her other senses really were compensating for her lack of vision because everything she was experiencing was a million times more powerful than any other situation she had been in. Every bit of him was overwhelming, his hands one her skin, his scent that surrounded her, the noises coming from the back of his throat, and his mouth tasted like heaven so much so that she was dying to taste every part of him.

When she curled her fingers in his hair she finally figured out why he always raked through it when he was upset- it felt amazing. His fingers danced their way up her ribs and slipped under her bra to tweak her nipples, causing her to thrust her hips into his and he let out a groan.

"Absolutely," Jake growled as he broke apart their lips to press kisses down her neck in between nips and rakes of his teeth.

"What?" Amy breathed because she couldn't find her voice to make it nearly as loud as it should be.

"If we were anywhere else but this stupid elevator and you kissed me, I absolutely would have kissed you back."

She dragged his head up to taste his lips again as his hand glided down her side to creep up her thigh. She shifted her hips closer to get his hand to where she desperately needed him faster and was so close when the lights suddenly flashed back on.

The brightness stung her eyes but once they adjusted she saw that they were both looking around like they had forgotten where they were, or really that anything existed other than each other.

Jake's hair was all tousled while a lovely flush had crept onto his cheeks accentuating his red and swollen lips to complete the whole debauch picture, and Amy didn't think she had ever seen him look so attractive. She briefly wondered how bad she must look in that moment before deciding that she didn't care one bit.

When his eyes met hers they were wide and filled with lust, but soon softened and she felt like she couldn't breathe again. He removed his hand from her thigh and she had to fight the urge to vocalize her disappointment, but was soon placated when he cradled her cheek.

"God it's good to see your face again," he sighed and Amy couldn't help but smile at the sentimentality behind his statement and his actions, and he smiled back. Before she could say anything in response the woman's voice popped back on over the speaker.

"We've got the situation solved and everything's up and running. You should begin your descent in under two minutes."

"Guess we should-"

"Yeah."

Amy reluctantly got off of his lap and helped him stand up while the first twinge of doubt crossed her mind. She wasn't sure what was going to happen next, what this was going to mean for them, but Jake was the first to voice her exact concerns.

"We're gonna finish this, right? What happened here? I mean, not like finish finish. Cause I don't want to stop. This. Like in an hour, and tonight, and this week, and this month, I don't want this to... stop." He swallowed nervously, and even though she had been worried about his reaction, she had to fight the urge to roll her eyes that he still didn't get that she wanted him more than anything. And now that she knew that he wanted her too, there wasn't anything stopping them.

She straightened her top then took a step towards him to pat down his mess of hair, then smoothed out the wrinkles in his shirt that had gone all askew.

"Yes, we're going to finish this, but it's not going to end," she told him, and she was never more sure of anything in her life. Especially when his face lit up and she was positive her expression mirrored his.

"Do we look presentable enough to take the stairs?"

And she knew what a sacrifice it was for him to suggest that because he was the one who hated presentations and she was sure that he was just as desperate to be feeling her again as she was him, but it was incredibly sweet because she knew he was only saying it because she was bragging to him that morning how she had never missed a presentation in seven years.

"I thought you wanted to finish this? Besides, we're already 20 minutes late." She tried to come off as flirty and casual, but he knew her too well to think that skipping a presentation was just something she did everyday.

"Amy Santiago, are you playing hooky for the likes of me?" He had that shit eating grin on his face that she was so happy to see, even though it made her have trouble hiding her smirk.

"Don't make me change my mind," she warned, but it was obvious to the both of them that it was an empty threat as the elevator slowly began it's crawl down to the bottom floor.

The numbers counted down with each floor the passed, 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2...

Between the second and first floor Jake pulled her in for another kiss that was just a promise of what was about to come. He released her as the doors dinged open but his hand found hers and she held on tight.

* * *

 **AN: It is appalling the lack of elevator fics in this fandom. I know that 2 characters being trapped in an elevator and one having to calm the other down is pretty popular across the boards of all fandoms, so I don't get why there's barely any here. Dude, Jake and Amy were made for that situation!**

 **And I'm may or may not have written an original song inspired by Jamy feels and I may or may not have put it on tumblr, and I may or may not be suggesting that you go check it out.**  
 **Actually, yes, I am. I did write a Peraltiago song and I did put it on tumblr and I do want to share it with you guys.**  
 **My tumblr is disruptedvice and the song is called Static. At the time of this posting it is the first thing on my home page, but in the future I'll probably make a tab/page/thingy so it's easier to find (especially if I put up more original song-y stuff). I'd really love to hear what you guys think.**


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